CONCLUSIONS

The columbine massacre raised the question whether video games were of a malignant influence on society. Ever since that incident, people are wary of how much violent media influences behavior. Nevertheless people become quick to jump into conclusions like Jack Thompson did regarding the Virginia Tech Massacre. Thompson inaccurately blamed Video Games on influencing the gunman, Cho's actions before any evidence was actually found. It turned out he did not have any games in his PC or any video game console.[33] The rush to generalize Violent Video games as a "murder simulation" masks the many benefits that Video Games produce for society.

Asides from the unquantifiable happiness and satisfaction that video games provide for its consumers, video games are a benefit to the United States economically. The game industry provides direct employment for 24,000 people in 31 states and for 80,000 people indirectly.[34] From 2002 to 2006, employment grew at a rate of 4.4% annually.[35] Between 2003-2006 the growth of the industry was at 17 percent annually.[36] The combined worth of the Industry that is added to the United States's GDP is 3.8 Billion.[37]

The recent calls for tighter controls over the Video Game industry's production of violent games are unneeded. Objectionable content is listed by the ESRB along with its rating. The hot coffee incident caused a re-rating of GTA: San Andreas from M to AO and people complained that the ESRB did not do its job of accurately rating the game. This is not a valid attack on the ESRB since the sex scene that was the source of ire was only accessible through modifications made by players. Government review of games would be a waste of money and they would not do any better than the ESRB.

The Video game Industry has come a long way from Pong. Initially Monopolies such as Atari and Nintendo dominated the market through their consoles but as time has shown, the console makers depend heavily on the game developers and publishers. Atari was toppled not by the Nintendo console but by the Nintendo produced games such as Super Mario Bros and other quality 1st party developed games. This in turn attracted other developers to the system. Sony made evident with the PS2 that it is the games that carry the console, more so than technical superiority or even price. What brought about the video game crash of 1983 were bad games and what cured it were good games. In order to analyze the future of Video Games, it is fundamental to analyze the quality of the games being produced. 2007 was a great year for hardware sales for all 3 consoles. Likewise it was also a great year full of ****c franchise titles manifesting on the new consoles. The Halo franchise finally appeared for the 360 as Halo 3, the Legend of Zelda series appeared on the DS as Phantom Hourglass, Pokemon on the DS as Pokemon Diamond/Pearl, and Mario on the Wii as Super Mario Galaxy. Critically acclaimed original games have also came out for this generation such as Bioshock, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and Rock Band. Whether or not the Video Game industry is a worthwhile investment may be answered if one looks at the sales numbers or in a more fun manner by playing the games.

[1] ESRB "Frequently asked questions" [www.esrb.org]

[2] Entertainment Software Association "2007 Sales, Demographic and Usage Data: Essential Facts about the Computer and Video game Industry" [www.esa.com] 2007

[3] Beck, John C. Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever (United States of America: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2004) 31

[4] Laramee, Francois Dominic. Secrets of the Video Game Business (Hingham: Charles River Meida, 2005) 105

[5] Entertainment Software Association "2007 Sales, Demographic and Usage Data: Essential Facts about the Computer and Video game Industry" [www.esa.com] 2007

[6] Morris, Karl "Atari historical society" [www.atarimuseum.com]

[7] Goldberg, Marty. "The 2600 Story" [http://****cgaming.gamespy.com]

[8] Ben "The 25 dumbest moments in gaming" [http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments] June 2003

[9] Horwitz, Jer "The history of Nintendo" [www.Gamespot.com] Gamespot, CNET Networks

[10] Ben "The 25 dumbest moments in gaming" [http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments] June 2003

[11] The Economist Technology Quarterly December 6 2007

[12] Thoresen, Tor "100 million Playstations sold" [www.gamespot.com] May 19 2004

[13] Goldberg, Marty. "The 2600 Story" [http://****cgaming.gamespy.com]

[14] Thorsen, Tor "Sony 120 Million PS2s sold"[http://www.gamespot.com/news/6181828.html] October 26 2007

[15] Fackler, Martin "Putting the we back in wii" NY times June 8 2007, Technology

[16] Sanchanta, Mariko "Nintendo's Wii take console lead" Financial Times September 12 2007

[17] Sinclair, Brendan. "Halo effect helps sept sales hit 1.3 Billion" [www.Gamespot.com] October 19 2007

[18]Stanton, Aaron "A Comprehensive, One-Stop Guide to the GameCube, Xbox, & PS2" [http://nintendo.about.com/]

[19] Horwitz, Jer "The history of Nintendo" [www.Gamespot.com] Gamespot, CNET Networks

[20] Androvich, Mark "Handhelds are dominating, says Square Enix Boss" [http://www.gameindustry.biz/] December 6 2007

[21] Sakurai, Masahiro "Snake" [www.smashbros.com] September 21, 2007

[22] Niizumi, Hirohiko "Playstation meeting report: PS3 hardware, dev kits, new games" July 22 2005 [www.gamespot.com]

[23] Thorsen, Tor "CES '08: Gates' swan song reveals 10M XBL members" http://www.gamespot.com/ January 7, 2007

[24] Thorsen, Tor "Ad assault heralds 399 40 GB PS3 Launch" [http://www.gamespot.com] November 2, 2007

[25] Gantayat, Anoop "Devil may cry update" [http://www.ign.com/] June 1 2007

[26] Taub, Eric A. "Microsoft to Spend $1.15 Billion for Xbox Repairs" Ny Times Business July 6 2007

[27] Entertain Consumers Association "Jack Thompson sues Omaha Police Chief over Mall Rampage records"[www.gamepolitics.com] December 28

[28] Senators Clinton, Lieberman Announce Federal Legislation to Protect Children from Inappropriate Video Games

[29] Watts, Jonathan. "South Korea lifts Japan Ban" Hollywood Reporter [www.allbusiness.com] October 27 1998

[30] Fahey, Rob "China bans Codemasters' project IGI2"[www.gameindustrybiz.com] March 23 2004

[31] Orr, James. "Sadistic, brutal and bleak: censors ban Manhunt 2 game"[www.guardian.co.uk] June 19 2007

[32] Greeberg, Daniel. "When Federal Trade commissioners Attack" [www.igda.org/biz] 2000

[33] Entertainment Consumers Association "Feds release Virginia Tech Report: No mention of Games"[www.gamepolitics.com]

[34] Siwek, Stephen E. "Video Games in the 21st Century: Economic Contributions of the U.S. Entertainment Software Industry" [www.esa.com] 2007

[35] IBID

[36] IBID

[37] IBID